stirling-1963-vol-1/05_114

Transcription

No. 79 -- FORTS -- No. 80
farmhouse, and at a height of a little over 700 ft. O.D.
It occupies a knoll which protrudes from the face of the
hillside and may thus be overlooked from the N. The
fort is roughly oval on plan (Fig. 17), measuring 145 ft.
from E. to W. by 120 ft. transversely within the ruins of
a stone wall which are spread to a width of between 15 ft.
and 20 ft. Excavation ¹ has shown that this wall originally
measured 12 ft. in thickness. Outside the wall there is a
terrace about 14 ft. in width, from the outer margin of
which a few earthfast boulders protrude. Immediately
to N. and NW. easy access is offered to the fort from the
hillside by a broad neck of land, and this is barred by a
series of ramparts and ditches which extend in depth for
more than 100 ft. The fort has two entrances; the larger
one, which was probably the main entrance, lies on the
E. and the smaller one on the W. The interior is grass-
grown and featureless. About 100 ft. E. of the E. entrance
there is a circular depression, 30 ft. in diameter, which is
often full of water; it may have been a pond used by the
occupants of the fort. A modern cairn stands on the NE.
arc of the wall.
As seen on the surface the structure appears to be an
Early Iron Age fort of conventional type, and the small
finds from the excavation seem to confirm this; they
included a number of pieces of hand-made pottery, a
stone ball, a sandstone disc, and fragments of a shale
armlet and a stone ring. The excavators reported traces
of part of what might have been an earlier rampart close
to the inner face of the N. arc of the main wall, but as
the latter was not sectioned the certain existence and true
nature of the supposed earlier remains were not proved;
they were thought, however, to consist of post-holes
belonging to the inner revetment of a core of earth and
brushwood. No positive evidence of a post-Roman
occupation was found, although, as only about one-
fourteenth of the interior of the fort was examined, this
negative evidence cannot be regarded as conclusive.

639789 -- NS 67 NW -- 26 June 1953

79. Fort, Craigmaddie. This fort, 100 yds. E. of
Craigmaddie House, is situated in woodland at a height
of 500 ft. O.D., Craigmaddie Castle (No. 206) occupying
its interior. To N. and E. the adjoining ground is level,
but to the S. and W. it falls steeply towards the Craigmaddie
Burn. The fort is D-shaped on plan (Fig. 18) and
measures internally 135 ft. from E. to W. by 110 ft.
transversely. The chord is defined by the crest of the
steep, rocky descent to the S., and the arc by the remains
of two ramparts, now represented only by low, grass-
covered, stony mounds. In the E. arc of the inner
rampart a stretch of outer facing-stones, 15 ft. in length,
together with a few stones which probably represent the
inner face, indicates that this was probably a dry-built,
rubble-cored stone wall some 12 ft. in thickness, but no
similar remains of masonry can be seen in the outer
rampart. Both ramparts being at the brink of the rocky
slope on the W. and run round to stop short of it on the
E., and it is probable that originally entrance to the
interior was gained through the resulting gap at the
latter point. Both ramparts have been severely robbed;
the only internal feature, other than the mediaeval castle,
is a length of scarp in the W. sector, but this is probably
natural.

575765 -- NS 57 NE (unnoted) -- 17 March 1958

[Plan Inserted]
Fig. 18. Fort, Craigmaddie (No. 79), also showing
Craigmaddie Castle (No. 206)

80. Fort, Mote Hill, Stirling (Site). Mote Hill, the
northernmost feature of Gowanhill consists of a rocky
knoll which attains an elevation of about 160 ft. O.D.
To the NW. a precipitous cliff falls from the summit to
level ground 110 ft. below, but on all other sides the
flanks of the knoll are only gently inclined and vary in
height from 20 ft. on the N. to 40 ft. on the S. The summit
is irregular on plan, measuring 90 ft. in length from N.
to S. by 60 ft. from E. to W., and it is probable that the
low bank, about 20 ft. in width, that borders it represents
the ruin of a wall, although nothing can now be seen to
confirm this. An account published in 1794 ² states that
a ruinous wall was then visible and that the stones had
the appearance of vitrifaction. A piece of vitrified material
from the site is preserved in the Hunterian Museum,
University of Glasgow. A later account mentions that
the structure was known as Murdoch's Knowe or Hurly
Haaky, ³ and claims that a second wall lay some 25 ft.
outside the first. A vestige of this may be represented by
a terrace, 8 ft. in width and 50 ft. in length, which runs
across the N. face of the knoll at a level 7 ft. below that

1 T.G.A.S., new series, xiv (1956), 64 ff.
2 Randall, A General History of Stirling (1794), 19.
3 T.S.N.H.A.S., vi (1883-4), 18. Cf. P.S.A.S., vi (1864-6),
210 ff., where this structure is referred to as "Hurly Hackit"
and the meaning of the name is discussed.

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